Crawley School Faces £3m Roof Repair Bill After Torrential Leak Floods Classrooms

A Crawley secondary school is facing a multi-million-pound repair bill after part of its roof split open, sending tonnes of rainwater flooding through classrooms.

The damage at St Wilfrid’s Catholic School, Southgate, was discovered at the end of the summer holidays, when heavy downpours caused a section of the plastic roof to give way.

Water cascaded onto the first and ground floors, leaving behind what headteacher Michael Ferry described as “significant damage” to teaching spaces.

Two other parts of the roof are also leaking, with urgent scaffolding works underway to prevent further flooding.

Students returning in September were met not just by their teachers but by towering scaffolding structures now set to remain in place until next summer.

The school will also close for a week before half-term while a more complex scaffold is installed above the dining area — during that time, pupils will switch to online learning.

Mr Ferry said:

“This decision was made with the safety of all concerned. Rest assured, everything that can be done, will be done to ensure safety is paramount with as little disruption as possible.”

The repair bill is expected to reach £3 million. But questions are already being asked about how the roof of a building completed in 2009 could have deteriorated so quickly — and, crucially, who will pay.

As a Voluntary Aided school, responsibility for major repairs falls not to the Department for Education or West Sussex County Council, but to the Catholic Diocese of Arundel and Brighton.

Yet the annual budget the Diocese receives for maintenance across all its schools is barely more than the amount St Wilfrid’s needs on its own.

Diverting the funds could mean other schools miss out on vital repairs.

Mr Ferry said he is working closely with diocesan representatives to find a permanent solution.

He confirmed that despite patch-up works in the past, part of the roof now requires a complete replacement while another section must be resealed.

For now, the scaffolding is acting as a shield against further leaks, but the long-term future of the roof — and how to fund it — remains uncertain.